Not to proceed to give Mr Sutiyoso the award

HIC

Santiago, Chile, October 1, 2005

Ms. Anna Tibaijuka
Executive Director
UN-HABITAT

Dear Director,

With very much disappointment the General Secretariat of Habitat International Coalition has received the notice that Governor Sutiyoso as head of the Jakarta Metropolitan City will receive the award in behalf of the city from UN-Habitat for his achievement in “slums improving and building new infrastructure to create an inclusive, cosmopolitan city”.

Governor Sutiyoso has a terrible record of violating the housing and livelihood rights of the urban poor of Jakarta which you can read for promoting evictions and confiscations of means of earning living belong to the urban poor “for making Jakarta as a clean, orderly, and competitive city”. On December 2003, 800 protesters demanded the government to stop eviction/confiscation and to fulfill the rights of the urban poor. Further, he explained that such protests will not stop him continuing ‘the law enforcement’ in Jakarta. For him, eviction means giving back the land being seized by the poor (no matter how long they have been living there) to the ‘legal owners’ that often could easily get the certificate of land ownership through bribery. (see more at ACHR website
www.achr.net).

So far, the victims of the past evictions still have no alternative shelter. Some hundreds families still living on the boat in Kali Adem, and some other hundreds people still living in the evicted area in Jembatan Besi, Tanjung
Duren, and Cengkareng Timur. And this numbers of the homeless inevitably increases with the fire in Kampung Damai, a slum area in Penjaringan, North Jakarta on 7th December 2003. Together with the victims, we will still
demand the government to fulfill our rights to housing and respect our social, economic and cultural rights.

Understandably the UNHabitat’s giving him an award.

If UN Habitat is to promote the full realization of Human Rights, particularly the Human Right to Adequate Housing, and support initiatives towards Cities Without Slums as well as the realization of the MDG 7, how
can UN award a person who does not recognise people’s process and social production of housing as a means for inclusive, democratic and sustainable cities?

As our friend Wardah Hafidz says, “By giving the award to the city, the UN Habitat recognizes the development process in the city which clearly marginalizes urban poor people. The award will encourage the city to be more
intensive in evicting the poor and confiscating the livelihoods now that it has received international support for it’s development policies.”

We request UNHABITAT not to proceed to give Mr Sutiyoso the award.

With best regards,

Ana Sugranyes
HIC General Secretary